Monday, May 12, 2008

Coaching Salaries Are Ridiculous

Little wonder that Americans think spending on college sports is out of control. California coach Jeff Tedford, for example, had a .500 team in 2007 that earned a berth to the insignificant Armed Forces Bowl, where it squeaked past Air Force, 42-36, to finish 7-6.

"Yet, the university continues to subsidize intercollegiate sports at Cal, last year by $6.4 million.

"If athletic departments can afford such rich salaries, perhaps it's time to eliminate the subsidy, or even reverse the flow and use some of the sports profits to offset the cost of badly needed programs elsewhere on campus.

"The subsidy, for example, could pay for roughly 45 full-time Cal instructors."

Although Tedford is the highest-paid employee in California's educational system, he has friends at the top. Ben Howland, UCLA basketball coach, pulled in $1.41 million in 2007. Ben Braun, former Cal basketball coach, had a salary of $1.07 million. And Karl Dorrell, ousted as UCLA football coach, had a salary of $961,687. The four were the top earners in the California system.

There is nothing positive to say about the tide. Shouldn't bama football actually do something noteworthy (besides losing to La. Monroe) before you expect any positive opinions? And no, I'm not talking about your glory days 30+ years ago. Wait, don't tell me, your next MNC is just around the corner, right?

I don't think the goal of an elite institution like Berkeley is hiring instructors but full fledged tenure track professors. Trust me, folks. Berkeley is not hurting for resources in any of its academic departments as the writer claims in the article. It is the flagship campus of the UC system and will always be fully funded regardless of economic conditions. The disdain toward college sports displayed by this columnist is truly amazing.

"Shouldn't bama football actually do something noteworthy (besides losing to La. Monroe) before you expect any positive opinions?"

You're right. The athletic department funding the University's educational goals (and not vice versa) is really crappy since they lost to Louisiana Monroe. Those two things have very much to do with each other.

The suggestion that athletics is at all funding academics at Cal is absurd almost beyond response. Almost. Like at most public universities, Cal's AD is in the red. Football and Basketball are not sufficient to cover the costs of their own programs plus 25 non-revenue sports. The university's academic budget is integrally tied to the state's budget and has been dramatically affected by a number of factors far greater in scope than college athletics. The academic and athletic budgets have virtually nothing to do with each other, and anyone who says otherwise has a total lack of understanding of the scale or operation of academic expenditures.

@Greg6363 You are ill-informed if you believe that UC Berkeley is not struggling. It is well documented that Cal is in danger of losing top level professors to other schools who can pay the escalating salaries that the best professors now demand. The $113MM grant from the Hewlett Foundation will help tremendously, but that does not solve the problem. The point is that diverting some of the relatively minuscule amount of money that goes to Tedford will do absolutely nothing to relieve Cal's financial troubles.

The new training complex and stadium upgrades are entirely privately funded, so that has nothing to do with anything.